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Now I'm not sure...when I tested it, I saw make the stripes on the players pants seem funny. Now it's not doing it. Maybe it was in combination with another setting. Or maybe it was my DRC mode...I just turned it off. This DRC mode puzzles me.

I'll try it your way for the 3rd quarter, but with Live Color = low.
I think Live Color adds a little more pop.

Ya kept the same settings as slumpey but change the neutral to cool. Because to my eyes the picture had a red push me imo. and I have the color space to wide because it's looks better to me then standard. It doesn't matter how I just adjust it i like the wide instead of standard. And I luv this tv a lot I have a 46xbr4.

Just like the X2 barb-wire scene, the 2nd to last scene in the movie where Ricky Bobby and the french guy are running to the finish and jump, land on the ground, and the camera pans from frenchie's hand to Ricky's hand, there is obvious judder around the fingers of their gloves unless you turn on Motionflow = high (Cinemotion has no effect).

The major problem I have with Motionflow though is that it creates this really distracting rubberband-like pan and scan effect during most of the rest of the movie... I guess I need to compromise and just live with the judder during a few scenes to get really sharp action during the rest of the movie. The rest of the movie looks much better with Motionflow off I would say.

I'm going to do further testing with regular DVD's, but I think my compromise is what Sony also decided becuase this is what their "Theater Mode" does - turns off Motionflow.

Others? I have to say that I would like to see how Plasma's deal with this, is it inherent to LCDs?

Plasma has between 700 to 900 lines of resolution during a scene of fast moving images; the best LCDs have done (only recently) is about 600 lines [Sharp Aquos D92, also the new Sony XBR4/5 models]. The forthcoming JVC 898 series of LCDs (with a 2nd generation 120hz processing, using a 32-bit chip too) should also rate highly.

The phospher pixels in a plasma panel change faster than the crystal pixels of a liquid crystal display [short summary]. The LCD is also hindered due to how long the LCD frames remain static - which are longer than plasma's phosphers [measured in milliseconds].

So far with my 52XBR4 I just went to Custom, bumped the color up to 55, put the sharpness to 50, DRC off, I set everything else in advanced settings to low except MPEG noise reduction & clear white are both off, color space is set to wide. Motion flow is off, except for sports, Cinemotion is off, color temp is either neutral or warm1 depending on my mood. This seems to be a good jack of all trades settings for my SA 8300HD via HDMI. Hopefully I'll be able to fine tune it more as time goes on but for now I'm very happy with it. When I have more time I'll list all the settings but that pretty much sums it up.

Edit - this is no longer accurate, I posted my current settings later on in this thread.

Short story, I just upgraded from a 27" Zeinth to a 46" Sony XBR4 and upgraded from basic comcast to the comcast HD and am a little overwhelmed. I hooked up a PS3 via hdmi and used gordong11's settings and things look great watching Casino Royale. I had to use the comcast component cables because for some reason an hdmi cable wouldn't display a signal. Anyways I used the same custom settings for the cable box and things look good on the HD channels but the regular stations don't look so great. Looks like when you were in high school chemistry class looking through a microscope seeing all the little squiggly things. Is this normal and do I just need to learn to live with it? I appreciate any advise...thanks.

Any possibility you can illustrate this with actual video content, as appose to test patterns? I learned a long time ago that what you can measure in a laboratory environment and what you can actually see and hear are often very different.

Short story, I just upgraded from a 27" Zeinth to a 46" Sony XBR4 and upgraded from basic comcast to the comcast HD and am a little overwhelmed. I hooked up a PS3 via hdmi and used gordong11's settings and things look great watching Casino Royale. I had to use the comcast component cables because for some reason an hdmi cable wouldn't display a signal. Anyways I used the same custom settings for the cable box and things look good on the HD channels but the regular stations don't look so great. Looks like when you were in high school chemistry class looking through a microscope seeing all the little squiggly things. Is this normal and do I just need to learn to live with it? I appreciate any advise...thanks.

I have the same problem too. This is what someone advised:

Originally Posted by Mod-Mod-World
I have the 46" as well, and at first, my SD PQ looked yucky too. I can only assume that you have changed to Picture Mode to Custom (or at the very least, out of Vivid). Try some of the settings others have posted, I have found them to be really helpful to start. The thing that helped me the most was to turn off DRC, and turn on Noise Reduction (I have it at low) for the input of your cable.
Try doing that and see what happens, I'm sure others will have more ideas, but those two settings cleared up my ugly, noisy SD channels quite a bit (from the out-of-box settings). I'd like to point out that my cable line is pretty good: all new lines from the pole, etc... I think the source input is very important as to how good you can expect it to look.

"Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks." - Winston Churchill

When this DVR's video is connected to the XBR4 with a DVI <--> HDMI Cable the Standard Definition SD TV Channels were blurred and tinted green vs. HD TV Channels

The fix for this SD CHANNEL GREEN TINT ISSUE was to go into the MOXI HDTV Setup Settings Menu and UNCHECK the 480i option. Selecting any or all of the other formats (480p, 720i, 1080i) does not change the color of SD TV channels.

The fix for this SD CHANNEL GREEN TINT ISSUE was to go into the MOXI HDTV Setup Settings Menu and UNCHECK the 480i option. Selecting any or all of the other formats (480p, 720i, 1080i) does not change the color of SD TV channels.

Isn't it better to let the TV upconvert 480i, then to have the STB do it?

When this DVR's video is connected to the XBR4 with a DVI <--> HDMI Cable the Standard Definition SD TV Channels were blurred and tinted green vs. HD TV Channels

The fix for this SD CHANNEL GREEN TINT ISSUE was to go into the MOXI HDTV Setup Settings Menu and UNCHECK the 480i option. Selecting any or all of the other formats (480p, 720i, 1080i) does not change the color of SD TV channels.

What is the best method to calibrate the LCD. Recently I was looking at a video from DV camera and was dissappointed with the picture on this Sony XBR3. My first impression was it was too contrasty and not enough gray scale. I next viewed the tape on an old Sony CRT set and the picture looked great. Is there a good or recommended method to set up the LCD. How about test DVDs.
Thank you

Any possibility you can illustrate this with actual video content, as appose to test patterns? I learned a long time ago that what you can measure in a laboratory environment and what you can actually see and hear are often very different.

Well, sorry I can't provide an online demo source.

But if you can view in person a calibrated plasma set beside a calibrated LCD set, you should be able to "see" the superiority of plasma, especially on moving images.

Foy myself, I actually prefer the matte glass finish of LCD, as when viewing images on a plasma's glossy glass - (and now included with some of Samsung's newer LCDs, the 65, 71 & 81 series) - makes me a little dizzy and fatigued. Depends on each person's eyes and sensitivity.

I quickly discovered that this Sony does not properly deinterlace 1080i in the factory default Vivid picture setting. In fact, it also drops 50% resolution in the Standard picture mode as well. However, the set does properly deinterlace the 1080i signal and does deliver all frames, and thus does display the full vertical resolution, in either Custom or Cinema picture mode!

Why did Sony choose to make the default mode one that fails to properly deinterlace incoming 1080i signals? I haven't the faintest idea, especially since, according to a number of set makers, the majority of HDTV buyers leave the user settings in the factory default!

If you pick up just one tip from this website, it should be to change your HDTV out of its showroom default setting (which may be called Dynamic or some other variation) as soon as it is unpacked and connected. The preferred picture setting on most brands will be called Cinema, or Custom, or Pro, or some variation of those. Check your owner's manual for the choices.

When you select whatever the advanced setting is called, it will always deliver a better image under home lighting conditions than the factory default setting, which is intended only for brightly (over)lit dealer showrooms.

But when I have it on vivid for HDTV Over-The-Air signal and also on vivid for my XBOX with HD HDMI hook up it looks so much better than any of the other settings like Custom, Standard, or Cinema...

It looks bright, full of color and very HD quality, a huge difference between those other settings. Can I just tweak the vivid settings so I could get more out of it? I just don't see it getting better than it is now.

I'm watching Football on CBS 2.1 channel and it looks awesome on the vivid setting. What setting can I change to make it look better/get more out of the HD experience?

Thanks in advance!

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical.They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with.Some men just want to watch the world burn."

Just got my tv delivered a few hrs ago but had to go out. Now I came back and connected my cable (SD) and it's pretty nasty stuff. I'll try messing around with settings but I was wondering if any of the settings done here were for SD or all for HD telecast? I'll be switching over but it'll take a few days to get my cable box and right now I don't feel like even watching my SD channels on this set, I'd rather reconnect my CRT!

Just a friendly reminder, but the XBR does not display 1080 unless it is in cinema or custom setting. I switched it over this morning and I have not moved from infront of the TV. Also I have cinemotion to auto 2 and motionflow to high for everything. Been watching SD and HD programmiing and it looks great. I am using HD20 with Direct TV.

???
Then why did you buy one? I don't see the point of buying a tv which produces colors you are not pleased with. That's like buying a 3-legged horse to pull your wagon.

Im returning it..silly me to think a 3000.00 + tv would have bad color. Maybe my XBR4fetctive but when I see people's calibration postings that show a -14 on the green scale someone else must be experiencing the same thing.